Hansen: “not interested”

10 07 2008

I was stunned by Dr. James Hansen’s response in this article in the Virgina Informer

Excerpt:

“For this fall,” the organizer wrote in his e-mail to Mr. Hansen, “we are hoping to host a debate on global climate change and its implications. Patrick Michaels has agreed to come, and my organization would like you to come and debate Dr. Michaels in Williamsburg. The date is very flexible, and we can tailor the day of the debate completely to your schedule. We will be able to pay for your travel expenses and offer you an honorarium for your time. Please let me know if you would be interested.”

Mr. Hansen’s response was, simply, “not interested.”

His reply — devoid of any salutation, punctuation, capitalization or signature — came an hour after Mr. Katz sent his original e-mail.

I suppose for Dr. Hansen, debating and defending your work is “futile“?

In my opinion, demonstrating arrogance in correspondence and ignoring reasonable debate doesn’t do much to bolster confidence in the man’s work.


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Categories : Uncategorized

Life in California: not fun at the moment

10 07 2008

This has been one of the roughest years I can remember living here. We’ve had two massive wind storms (one of which damaged my Stevenson Screens used for the paint test), and lightning induced fires on a massive scale.

Life has become miserable here, the smoke is oppressive, it’s been this way for two weeks now. Here is the view outside my home just a few minutes ago, about 6:30PM PST

Compare that to this view on a clear day:

And this view out my front door, we don’t need a solar filter anymore to look at the sun:

Here is the view from space, via NOAA 1KM resolution visible light satellite imagery. Note that the entire Sacramento Valley is choked with smoke as is much of the Sierra Nevada and Western Nevada:

Smoke is everywhere, and to escape it, I either have to go to Oregon or to Southern California. Los Angeles has better air quality right now. I’m considering leaving town and taking my familiy there to stay with relatives for awhile. This smoke has been giving all of us headaches and breathing issues.

I was heartened today to find that firefighters from Canada, Australia and New Zealand are on their way to California.

My sincere thank you to all of them and to their families. We really need help here. La Nina has kicked us hard and we are losing the battle.


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Categories : local_issues, weather